CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSSPrivate Shockley participated in a combat patrol up the Lunga River on 17 September 1942. The leading elements of his company, B/1/1, were cut off by an ambush, and attempts to rescue them resulted in further casualties. Eighteen men were left behind when the patrol withdrew.

A burial party returned to the ambush site the following week to identify and bury the remains. Their status was changed to “KIA at 1030 a.m. from gunshot wounds” on 25 September.

Nine of the eighteen were recovered in the years after the battle; Private Shockley was not among them. His remains likely still lie in their “temporary” grave on Guadalcanal.